Marty Stuart is a man reborn with `Souls' Chapel'

September 02, 2005|By Chrissie Dickinson, Special to the Tribune

The following year he joined the band of bluegrass legend Lester Flatt, and later logged a stint playing with Cash. The man in black became a father figure to Stuart, and for a short time an actual father-in-law during Stuart's brief marriage to Cash's daughter Cindy. Today, Stuart is married to country singer Connie Smith.

With deep roots in traditional country combined with a rock 'n' roll flair, Stuart blew like a fresh musical wind onto the country charts in 1989 and the early 1990s, charting such country-rock hits as "Tempted" and "Burn Me Down" as well as hit duets with country singer Travis Tritt. At the time, Stuart cut quite the figure with his rooster-haired coif and flashy vintage Nudie suits.

"There was a time when I was a radio darling, then all of a sudden it was like a light went off; they just kind of froze me out," he says.

Still on solid ground

But Stuart has continued to make solid records, including the critically acclaimed 1999 concept album "The Pilgrim," and has kept his hand in a number of projects. He's a writer and noted photographer. A longtime preservationist of the genre's history, he also owns one of the most impressive private collections of country music artifacts in the world, including some Hank Williams handwritten song manuscripts and Patsy Cline's makeup case.

Stuart doesn't bemoan his loss of stature on the charts and instead embraces his current freedom to make music without commercial restraints. "I feel like I have been pardoned from commercial country music," he laughs. "Once I escaped the commercial confinement of Music Row, I got out into an arena where I can let my musical interests and my musical knowledge run wild."

Stuart may not be a fixture on country radio anymore, but he's busier than ever. Besides "Souls' Chapel," Stuart has two more upcoming releases on Superlatone Records: a live concert CD recorded at the Ryman in Nashville and the Native American-themed CD, "Badlands."

"I thought about Ella Fitzgerald's `Song Books' collection, when she made an entire series of Gershwin songs, the bop numbers, the swing numbers," he says. "She got to be Ella Fitzgerald in a lot of different directions. And that's the concept behind Superlatone Records: If I can think it up, I can do it."